I have heard but not verified that the US is one of only two countries that tax people based on their citizenship. My father lives in France and works in Switzerland. He doesn't pay taxes in either Switzerland or France on that income (due to tax law in Switzerland he doesn't have a taxes due there). He does pay taxes on work done in some countries in the country he does the work. A US Citizen would need to pay taxes in the country they earn the money, if applicable, their country they live (if they use rules like the US) and in the US even though the money was only earned once. The US also did not provide any of the means to make money while living in other countries.
How exactly is being taxed up to three times fair? Ironically, the US is the largest tax haven in the world. Any non-citizen making a passive investment in the United States does not have any US based tax liability. Since most countries have the enlightened position of only taxing what you earn in the country, this results in no tax liability for many investors.
On the other hand, US citizens pay taxes as part of their birthright. If taxes are not regularly paid, you will be either unable to renew your passport or have it revoked. This leaves you effectively stranded unless you have already become a citizen in another country, or can claim refugee status from US low (some countries are starting to offer refugee status to Americans leaving the US). The means to give up citizenship are nearly if not completely eliminated. At the same time, anyone who does something the current administration does not like is stripped of their citizenship, all rights, Geneva Convention protections, due process and civil liberties. Please, explain to me how this is "fair".
PS, this is way off topic.
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Originally Posted by SteveBrown
Here is my 2 cents on tax issues. I do not understand why a US citizen would want to avoid paying the amount of tax required by law to the IRS. Aside from the possibility of getting into legal trouble, what is wrong with paying your fair share? Everyone who has a job has tax deducted from their paychecks by their employers. And those are people who do useful, productive work. There is nothing productive about making a profit trading forex, and it is useful only to the trader. Paying taxes on your trading profit at least shoulders some of the tax burden all tax payers bear.
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12-08-2006, 09:43 PM
broker with more 100 currency pairs!!
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